Black Bear
by IdentityCrisis.03
Summary: When you live in a forest... all you get is a wild animals, an interesting guild, and one crazy adventure!
1. Chapter 1

**So, I've seen a few of these around… and I thought maybe I could try my hand at one too.**

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Black Bear  
(4 years into Fairy Tail's core members' disappearance, x788)

In the land of Fiore, hidden deep within the Hutan Forest, lies a guild ancient at the soul, old with age and young at heart.

Black Bears; they are wild, but free. They eat, drink and sleep like any other human and like to hide amongst the trees. Just like the guild. The structure was built as a tree house, with many extensions built out around the tree tops, yet still hidden under the canopy, protected from rain.

Not many people know of the guild, even though it was created over a century ago. Although the place wasn't as famous as the recently formed Sabertooth, it at least obtained decent jobs.

Towns nearby called on them more often now, Fairy Tail no longer being there to help. Twilight Ogre demanded too high a price for just one request, Sabertooth were often taking the more dangerous missions, and the other guilds were just too far away.

So that left them with Black Bear. The guild was mostly underestimated, seeming having a laid back take on anything, but it was really just the demeanour of the guild. They never really got the chance to go full out either.

So are you ready for an adventure? Black Bear is the place to be!

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**So, the 'prologue' is pretty horrible (especially that last line), I had no idea what to write – since I found out you can't just post the application.**

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**Rules:**  
-**Read all brackets** in the following application  
-Fill out the form and **all of its categories** (you do not have to fill out the ones labelled as **optional**)  
-Any uncompleted (to standard) forms will **not be accepted**, and submit only through **PM **(please have the **subject as your OCs name**)  
-Absolutely **no connections** to other guilds, so no siblings, cousins of cannon characters etc.  
-It is **not first in, best dressed** - especially for S-Class or slayers  
-You will be **notified** of your acceptation (I'm hoping for around 25 OCs)  
-A **maximum of 2 OCs** per person  
-I also need a **Guild Master, barmaid/tender and healer**  
-**NO OP OCs**

NAME: (nickname and alias as well if they have one)

AGE: (preferably between 16-40+)

GENDER:

APPEARANCE:  
-Hair (colour, style)  
-Eyes (shape, colour)  
-Skin  
-Build (height and weight)  
-Piercings, Tattoos, Scars  
-Guild mark (colour and place)  
-Accessories (only things they never take off, like Natsu's scarf or Gray's cross necklace)

CLOTHES:  
-Casual  
-Formal  
-PJ's  
-Swimwear  
-Winter (optional, but preferred)

PERSONALITY:  
-General personality/mood  
-Around friends/in the guild  
-While fighting/with enemies  
(The following are optional)  
-With family  
-Around rivals  
-Around crush  
-People with authority  
-People 'weaker' than them  
-Strangers

MAGIC: (please try to make it quirky, and only 3 slayers are accepted [god or dragon, no devils please]. Necromancers, Blood, Light and Shadow mages [slayer or not] are not going to be accepted either)  
-Is it more attack or defensive type of magic (rate both out of ten, ten being the best, e.g. Attack - 7/10, Defence - 2/10)

-The score it would most likely have on a MPF (optional, but preferred)

SPELLS: (this is a MUST, if you don't have at least 5 with descriptions of what they are/do your OC will not be accepted)

WEAPONS: (optional) (any weapons, magic or not, also include the strength of the weapon)

CLASS: (only a select few will be S-Class, since trials will be held later on.)  
-Why (details on why your mage should be an S-Class, or why they can be applicable for S-Class, you'll be notified whether you are already or applicable to try out for the position)

SOLO OR TEAM: (are they a solo mage or a team mage? They can also be both, occasionally going alone or with a team, unless you have a particular preference, I will make teams myself.)

HISTORY: (don't make it a bore, or all blood and gore. Some people have happy backgrounds too, not everyone has a sob story and horrific dark past, remember no connections to other guilds.)

LIKES:

DISLIKES:

FEARS/WEAKNESS: (at least 2- one major one minor, and it can't really be heights… cause, well, the guild is built on top of a tree.)

FAVOURITE: (optional)  
-Colour  
-Food  
-Animal

RANDOM THINGS: (optional)  
-Dream/Ambition  
-Hobby  
-Talent  
-Good Habits  
-Bad Habits  
-Their Theme Song

MISSIONS: (please put the types of missions they would usually go for)

OTHER: (e.g. They're the barmaid or healer, they have an accent etc.)

I hope I haven't missed anything ._.  
This is also going to be put up on my profile to make it easier to copy.

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**I'm looking forward to your submissions!**


	2. Chapter 2

**This is the first chapter of Black Bear. The first few chapters are going to be introduction chapters... so don't be disheartened if you don't see your OC until a few chapters in :)**

**Credits appear in the following order:**

**Kaylee Flare - IdentityCrisis. 03**

**Jenx Piero - IdentityCrisis. 03**

**Rusty Mogen - M0M3NTAI**

**Evangeline Insglaive - visceraEffect**

**Raymond Bern -visceraEffect **

* * *

"Hmmm, it's been really quiet lately…" Someone announced, "Is Master back yet?"

"As if," another scoffed, "Who knows where he is – "

On cue, the guild doors slammed open and everyone looked toward the sound expectantly.

"Master!" The first person stood up excitedly, "Or… not."

The girl who had entered fell to the door as if in defeat. Her fair skin was bruised and her clothes tattered. A sharp intake of breath was heard before she let out a sigh, "Finally got away." She seemed to mutter to herself.

She stood up and dusted herself off, oblivious to the many pairs of eyes that were staring at her.

"Well… there goes our peace." Someone broke a heavy silence as the girl froze, looking up tentatively at the strong sense of aura in front of her.

"Uh, pardon the intrusion?" she said awkwardly, brushing the loose strands of hair behind her ears. The girl had chestnut brown hair tied into a braid and forest green eyes shaped like almonds. She wore a dark green t-shirt and beige shorts with roman sandals. On her left wrist, she had three black beaded bracelets with a different gem in the centre of them.

"How did ya find this place?" a girl stepped forward. She was an average height, say, 5'8 but was quite flat in the areas she needed it most. She had crazy bright red hair and deep, murky green eyes. She wore a grey off-the-shoulder shirt with the words 'Just Kidding' printed on it in black. At her waist, a dark blue jumper was tied on loosely over her denim shorts, sky blue tights with polka dots on them underneath. Her feet donned black chunky boots and she had a pair of hot pink arm warmers on.

"I just climbed the tree for an escape..." she squeaked out. Everyone sighed in relief and went back to doing their own thing.

"I see. Welcome to Black Bear then. Fate must have brought ya to our home. I'm Jenx." she gave a sunny smile, offering a hand to the newcomer.

"Kaylee. Kaylee Flare to be exact." she introduced. She couldn't help but feel that it was okay to trust everyone there and gladly took her hand.

"Here, as a welcome, I'll give ya something special." Jenx opened her palm and with a small wisp of bright orange smoke, a small sunflower appeared, "A gift of warmth for ya. It represents happiness, loyalty and longevity."

"Is this mine to keep? Are you a plant mage?!" Kaylee said, bewildered.

Jenx held the flower out toward her and Kaylee took it gingerly, leaning forward to sniff it when cold water was squirted across her freckled nose. Scrunching her face, she wiped off the liquid and raised an eyebrow, "That was mean."

Jenx burst out laughing, holding her stomach tightly as she managed to wheeze out her thoughts, "Damn, that was hilarious. I guess you should know I'm a clown mage - so dont expect a serious face from me." Finally calming down, Jenx took the braided girl's hand and lead her over to a small couch on the far side of the circular guild.

"If you're looking for a plant mage, meet Rusty Mogen. Just Ru for short. Her hair is as crazy as my magic." Jenx introduced the two, "This is Kaylee."

"W-what?" the pink haired mage stuttered, "I can't help it if my hair is like that..."

Ru's hair was cropped messily at her shoulders and her eyes were big and bright blue in colour. She wore a white and light blue strapped top with a hole in the back, revealing her black guild mark inbetween her shoulder blades. She had dark blue shorts on that ended just above the knee and brightly striped socks peeked out from under her black worn out boots. On each wrist was a small tattoo written is cursive; 'take it easy' on her left, and 'no worries' on her right.

"Watch how fun this is..." Jenx whispered to Kaylee before speaking out loud, "Oh yeah, Ru, I found this really awesome mission to go on." she said, bouncing up and down.

"Really? What's it about? Are we gonna bring the others with us?" Ru looked just as excited as her hair faded from pink to a glowing white colour.

"Actually, is it right to tell? 'Cause it's a one man's - or woman's job." Jenx said in a worried manner.

"But why not?" Her hair started to darken to a shade of orange - as did her face droop into a confused frown.

"You'll find out if ya read my shirt!" Jenx poked out her tongue.

"You suck..." Ru pouted and gave her a light slap on the arm.

"Oh, I'm so hurt." Jenx said dramatically and turned back to face Kaylee, "Anyway, now that you've met my teammate Ru and her overly emotional hair... Oh and that's her ferret. She always has one and who knows where she gets them from."

"Maybe a pet shop?" Kaylee suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.

"That is a possibility..." Jenx placed a finger to her chin.

"Hey! You'll hurt Fondant's feelings!" at first, Ru glared, but when she saw the confused faces of Jenx and Kaylee, she continued on to explain, "She's called Fondant 'cause she's so sweet!"

Ru cuddled the squirming creature closer to her as Kaylee raised an eyebrow at Jenx.

"I don't know... She's crazy, sometimes it's hard to be around her for too long." Jenx shrugged her off before pulling her over to the opposite side of the guild.

"Who are they?" Kaylee pointed over to a boy and girl who seemed to be deeply immersed in the own conversation, hands flying everywhere.

"Ah, meet the inseparable pair of the guild!" Jenx said with a flourish before whispering behind her hand, "I hear they may even share the same bed. Kidding, I'm just messing with ya. And mind you, they are just friends."

The fire-engine red haired girl walked up and tapped the two on their shoulders, stopping the conversation they were currently having.

"What's up?" The boy asked as the shorter girl next to him waved.

"Oh, I'm just clowning around." Jenx paused, bust spoke again when nobody laughed, "No? Okay, well, meet Kaylee."

She pushed the other girl foward.

"Nice. Well I'm Ray and that's Eva." Ray stuck out his hand.

He had messy, vivid red hair that was tied up in a low ponytail, and his eyes were covered by red-tinted sunglasses, masking the colour of his eyes. He was tan and quite muscular, but still looked lean. He wore a dark red jacket with a fur-lined hood, a small tattoo peaking out of the sleeve, written on his wrist. His torso was covered with a simple black, tight shirt and slightly baggy black pants, which was held up by a white belt and tucked into his boots at the cuffs.

The two shook hands and Ray turned back to face Eva, who rapidly made hand signs and smiled over to her.

Kaylee noticed Eva had short, straight light blue hair, with her bangs clipped to the side. She was petite, and her skin was pale, almost sickly. Eva had a light blue dress on with a dark vest over it, revealing her lavender guild Mark on her left shoulder. Underneath her dress, there were nude stockings and brown lace up boots.

"Eva said it's a pleasure to meet you, and that she hopes you have a good time." Ray translated.

She didn't look confused, nor did she say anything about Eva's way of communication. Smiling back, she bowed down low and said, "Thank you very much."

"So, what kind of magic do you have?" Eva asked through hand signs as Ray spoke for her.

Kaylee's right hand immediately went to clutch at the bracelets on her left wrist, "I'm a holder-type mage. More like a Gem Weilder. Each bracelet holds a different kind of gem." She pointed at each individual bracelet, "You can see I have a diamond on this one, and a ruby and sapphire on the other two. Everytime I get a new gem, either one of these beads will dissapear and be replaced with the gem, or I get a new bracelet - lets say if I collected a topaz."

"How will you know if they're magical or not?" Eva signed.

"They'll have something carved on it. A symbol, really. Of you look closely, this diamond has a symbol which looks like a sword. So I know that this is the diamond sword." Kaylee explained.

"Can you summon something for us?" Ray asked, nicely - of course.

Nodding, Kaylee took a step back and placed her pinky onto the diamond, "Of the strongest Gems, I summon thee, the Diamond in the form of the Holy Sword!"

In a flash of bright light, Kaylee stood there, the glimmering sword in her left hand.

"So is there a ruby sword and so on?" Jenx asked, curious.

"No, diamonds only have a weapon form, sapphires help you to defend - things like shields, and rubies give you properties to escape or dodge. I have the ruby wings." Kaylee's sword faded and disapeared, turning back into a gemstone.

"Alright, enough with the flashy stuff. I wanna show you the dorms." Jenx pulled her away and toward a wooden door at the back of the guild.

Nodding, she reluctantly let herself be dragged before coming to a sudden realisation. Kaylee was very strict on personal hygiene, so she yanked her hand away and asked, "If you all live in the trees, how do you... You know, bathe and stuff?"

"Oh! There's a massive lake and some natural hot springs down south. Every month we have a competition in town, girls vs the boys, to see who gets the better bathing option. When you lose, unfortunately, you get the lake. And what's worse, is that the lake is forever cold." Jenx shuddered at the thought of the cold - thanking Heaven that she got to bathe in the hot springs for the past 2 months.

"What about in winter?! You'd all freeze to death!" Kaylee looked mortified, not being a very big fan of the cold herself.

"Uh, yeah, about that... that's a whole different story." Jenx said, paling even further, almost to the point she looked blue.

Kaylee then decided, could she really trust this place? "I know I asked... But why are you willingly telling me all of this?" she asked quietly.

"Huh?" Jenx let out a short laugh, "Well isn't it obvious? You're gonna join Black Bear... right?"

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**I'm sorry for the horrible first chapter - not to mention the lack of characters. There are probably a million mistakes and the way I ended the chapter is kind of... so-so.**

**It's kinda short since I typed the whole thing up on my phone (my laptop broke) and I honestly hope you keep reading and (may have) enjoyed the first chapter regardless.**


	3. Chapter 3

**My laptop is finally fixed (yay) and I'm sorry for the late update… I was planning to update a few days ago but apparently the term 'save your documents' doesn't really apply to me, since I forgot and BAM, everything was deleted. Eheheh. .**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed; **_**Guest (Jul 14), Hell Devil 13, scrawlx1012, PoisonBanana, XxgrayxXbonanza, barkingupthewrongkey, Fairy-Chan 544, Qyresh, M0M3NTAI, GhostOfOnyx, Candied Snowflakes, h, and Rachel. Ongaku**_

**Credits appear in the following order:**

**Johnathan White – PoisonBanana**

**Gilbert Leonhardt – Hell Devil 13**

**Angel Shot – Fairy-Chan 544**

**Rhythm Bell – Qyresh**

**Chein Driskill – barkingupthewrongkey**

**Andrea Agnelli – xoxo-vanilla**

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"So, with our dorms, girls are on one side of the hallway, boys are on the other. We're on the right. Once you get your guild mark, your name will appear on a door. Just look for it. There will already be essentials and your room key inside." Jenx explained, opening the door to the hallway of the dorms.

The wooden door swung wide open and the first thing the two girls saw was a shirtless mage, about to enter his room.

"Hey." He started to say, when the hallway door slammed shut.

Jenx let go of the handle with slight red cheeks and turned back to Kaylee, smiling, "Never mind, we can check out the dorms later. Instead… let's go over here."

The two walked over to the bar and Jenx gestured for Kaylee to sit down, "This is Joe. He's our permanent bartender. He loves serving anything with alcohol in it… But unfortunately for him, most of us in the guild are minors or aren't particularly drawn to alcohol. He isn't a mage, but I think he secretly has a magic for mixing drinks… something with a little bit of rum please. What was it that you made for me last time? Planter's Punch I think it was."

The man had black hair that was neatly combed to the left and green eyes that looked up at the two girls in greeting. He had a tall stature and was quite thin. His skin was pale and his black guild mark could be seen on the back of his right hand as he mixed and poured Jenx's drink. He was dressed in a formal black suit and dress shoes.

A drink was handed to Jenx as Joe then looked at Kaylee expectantly.

"Uh, I'm Kaylee… do you have something with a hint of vodka?"

Jenx almost choked on her drink, "I didn't know you were old enough!"

"Well yeah I'm 20…" Kaylee said bashfully. Jenx's eyes widened and she started to speak before Joe cut her off.

"What would you like? There's the Orange Tundra, Blue Lagoon, a Fizzy Apple cocktail – " Joe had a small smile on his face as he started listing of a list of cocktail before Kaylee silenced him.

"How about you pick for me?"

"A Harrogate Nights it is." Joe confirmed, grabbing the bottle of vodka behind him and twirling it through his hand before pouring a generous amount of the alcohol in the shaker.

He took a tall glass from underneath the counter before putting ice in it and pouring a dash cranberry juice on top. Moving back to the shaker, he whipped out a fresh orange, sliced it in half, and squeezed the citrusy liquid out in one fluid move. He took a small bottle out and uncapped it, pouring what seemed like Malibu into the shaker as well. He then continued to pour pineapple juice and some Peach Schnapps into the container before twisting its lid shut and shaking it for a fair amount of time.

Kaylee watched in a trance as Joe poured the cocktail into the highball glass and placed a small orange wedge on it before passing it to her.

She took the gingerly as if it would burn her to touch it and took a careful sip. Her eyes lit up at its sweet, yet bitter taste.

"It's amazing!" She exclaimed, "You've got to tell me your secrets."

Joe scratched his head in an embarrassed manner, "Ah, it just runs within the White family I guess."

Kaylee laughed as Jenx downed the rest of her drink and smiled at Joe, "Do you have the guild stamp on you? Kaylee wants to join."

The man held up his hand, signalling to wait and fished around underneath the counter for a while before pulling out the magical stamp. He held it out to Kaylee in question as she pointed to the top of her back.

Turning around in her seat, Joe pressed the stamp down and with a small glimmer of light, lifted it off again, revealing Black Bear's signature guild mark in white.

"Awesome… you're now part of our guild!" Jenx clapped in delight and hopped off her stool, "Come on, finish your drink and let's go."

Nodding along with the clown mage she gulped the drink and then followed her toward another door in the guild. "There are a lot of doors in the mess hall…" she couldn't help but comment.

"Hmm? Yeah, that's because the hall is pretty much connected to all the other rooms. I mean… we live in a tree. What can you say?" Jenx shrugged her shoulders and tugged open the door with a flourish, "This is our guild master's… ah, crud." She stopped short.

"What?" Kaylee peeped into the room, finding nothing wrong with it – only the fact that the guild master seemed to be missing.

"Well… erm you see, Master likes to, err… disappear sometimes. Well, actually, a lot. And for who knows how long as well." Jenx gave a low, awkward chuckle before facing the guild and raising her voice, "Now, WHOSE TURN WAS IT TO TAKE CARE OF THE PAPERWORK?!"

"I'm pretty sure it's you." A man with an accent walked toward them as there were a couple of echoes with her name, backing up his statement. He looked at the newcomer and smiled, "I'm Gilbert Leonhardt, and you are?"

"Uh, Kaylee. I'm Kaylee." Her short stature looked up at the much taller mage.

Gilbert had green eyes and spiky blonde hair. He wore a vest over a simple white tee, with a pair of blue denim jeans that had a chain – connecting his wallet to his belt. His feet sported a pair of black chunky combat boots. On his left wrist, there was an orange watch, while on his right, there were braided bracelets. Strung around his neck, was a necklace with a golden ring on it. And finally, strapped to his back, Kaylee could see a sword – telling her not to really mess with the mage.

"And you finally put a shirt on." Jenx muttered under her breath, looking away.

"For a clown mage, you sure are innocent aren't you? No swearing, no – " He teased before he was cut off.

"Be quiet." She hissed, "No one want's to see you naked."

"Mind you, I was_ half_ naked." Gilbert let out a short laugh, "And shouldn't you be doing the paperwork?"

Huffing, the girl walked into the room and slammed the door shut, but only after saying a few words to Kaylee, "Go introduce yourself to some people. I'm gonna be stuck in here for a while. I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully." She groaned.

"So, I'm sorry about before. I'd just come back from a mission with my buddy Sol." Gilbert said, referring back to the encounter in the dorm's hallway. He held out his hand as Kaylee shook it, feeling like her hand was almost crushed in the process.

"Ah, it's alright, was the mission a success?"

"I guess it was alright." Gilbert shrugged his shoulders, "Say, you've gotta be a mage if your joining the guild right? What kind of magic do you have?"

"Only if you tell me what kind of magic you use." She shot back.

"Lightning."

"Are you… err, what do you call it again? S-Class mage?" Kaylee asked curiously.

"Nah, Ray, Chang, and Angel are the S-Class mages around here." He said, "Now, stop avoiding the question. What kind of magic do you have?"

"Gem magic." Kaylee smiled.

"Gem magic?" He repeated questioningly, "Never heard of it."

"Well, I guess you'll have to find out."

"Hey. I'm the one who teases here."

* * *

Kaylee knocked on the door, hearing a lot of muffled noise on the other side. They didn't seem to hear her, so instead she flung the door wide open. Immediately, a sword flew at her face, causing her to yelp and duck just in time. The sword landed with a thud on the floor in the centre of the guild, but to Kaylee's surprise, no one seemed to care.

"Ah, I'd advise you not to open the door to this room without looking at the sign first." A tall girl walked out and pointed above the door, where in a flashing red colour, it said 'BATTLE ENGAGED', "Looks like you found the spar room. Out of everything in the guild, this is the most expensive room."

"Spa?" Kaylee questioned, thinking of something completely different.

"Spar, as in sparring, where you can train. It has runes inside to absorb any impact to stop any destruction. It saves money too." She picked up her sword and returned to the doorway, "I'm Angel, or just Angie."

"You're an S-Class mage?" Kaylee asked, incredulous.

"Mhmm, I'm one of the lucky three." Angel said proudly.

The female S-Class mage had long silver hair tied up in a high ponytail and big, bright blue, doe-like eyes. She had pale skin, and a scar was seen on her wrist. She wore a white top with white ballet flats and light blue shorts. Her black guild mark was seen on the back of her left hand and on her right; a ring glinted in the sun light.

"Hey! What's taking you so long?" another voice called, a light set of footsteps coming closer.

"Oops, sorry to keep you waiting!" Angel called back.

"It's fine. Treat me to a meal and I'll get over it." Another girl leaned against the door way, grinning.

She had long wavy black hair tied into a simple ponytail as her bangs framed her face neatly. She has silver that seemed grey in the sunlight and pale, yet creamy skin. Her left ear had a long tribal-like earring in it with a small golden bell attached to the end, chiming quietly as her head swayed. Her outfit consisted of an extremely faded black sports bra and light, creamy trousers that had three pockets on each side and two on the back. She wore black fingerless gloves and white runners on her feet.

"Ah, you're going to spend all of my money…" Angel pouted childishly, "Can't you ask someone else?"

The girl smirked, "I can make it dinner with a full 7 courses…" Her head flicked to Kaylee, who'd finally lifted herself of the ground, "My, a new girl? The name's Rhythm Bell."

"I'm Kaylee… honestly, I'm surprised the men haven't taken charge of the room." She finally voiced out.

"I guess it's because most of them are on missions at the moment. There was a job request that came in a few days ago asking for a few men, actually. It's quite unusual for our guild to receive those." Angel said.

"I guess it's because Fairy Tail's going downhill." Rhythm suggested.

"Yeah, something like that. They should be back soon anyway, and as if they'd want to miss out on the chance for the hot springs tomorrow." Angel nodded in agreement.

"Is having to bathe in the lake really that bad?" Kaylee couldn't help but question, it would be cold, but it was something you'd be able to get used to… right?

Angel and Rhythm paused, looking at each other.

"If anything happens… just promise us you'll do the best you can tomorrow." Angel spoke with a grave face.

Kaylee nodded quickly, it seemed maybe the lake was the worst possible place to take a bath.

* * *

A short-to-average in height woman walked through the forest toward a large tree. The girl's sandy brown hair was styled into a straight bob cut with bangs. Her eyes were almond-shaped and red in colour and she had a horse-shoe septum ring pierced into its designated area. She wore a simple white t-shirt, her red guild mark peeking out from under her left sleeve. Around her neck was a dark blue keffiyeh scarf and her footwear consisted of red cowboy boots.

She came to a stop in front of the tree, taking a short moment to look around before she summoned a stone pillar from under her feet, lifting her up to the doors of the tree house. She walked in quietly, glad that most of the other guild members were distracted and nimbly weaved her way through to the back of the guild.

She quietly opened the door to the dorm corridor and checked that there was no one in sight. She slipped through in high hopes no one had noticed her from the mess hall.

Walking down the hallway, she fumbled with her room key with a small gemstone embedded into it before stopping in front of a door, with the name 'Chein Driskill' engraved on it in block font, she unlocked the door and was about to enter her room when the door next to hers was flung open.

"Oh, Chein." It was one of the other Dragon Slayers of the guild – Andrea Agnelli. She was short – not to mention flat chested, and her hair was kept short at the nape of her neck, but longer at the front to frame her face. She had a skinny face with high cheekbones and her eyes were light blue. Andrea wore a white long sleeved dress shirt with a dark blue unbuttoned vest over it. She had short black jeans and knee high stockings with ivory boots on her feet. An armband was seen on her right bicep. In her arms was her exceed – Jack, who had yellow fur and green eyes.

The brunette Stone Dragon Slayer nodded in return and stepped into her room, closing the door behind her.

Outside, Andrea gave a slight shrug and looked down at Jack, "She doesn't really like to talk… does she?" She murmured bluntly before walking to the guild hall.

Once she entered, she abruptly turned left and made her way to the library, her mind running through the list of fantasy books she hadn't yet read. In the midst of her thoughts, she bumped into someone, dropping Jack in the process, who yelped and withdrew his wings and saved himself from falling.

"Oh! Sorry Jack, I didn't mean to drop you." She said and then turned to whomever she'd bumped into with a blank look.

"I'm so sorry!" The person quickly said, bowing down, "I- I'm Kaylee, your new guild mate."

"Okay." Andrea shrugged nonchalantly, looking past the other girl and toward the library doors with unnoticeable longing.

Kaylee remained unnerved by the seemingly cold look that Andrea seemed to be giving her, but brushed it off with a bright smile, "And you are?"

"Andrea." The said girl pointed to herself, then at Jack who had landed to sit atop her head.

"I'm Jack!" the yellow exceed introduced for himself.

"Um… nice to meet you, you must be a Dragon Slayer…" Kaylee said, a talking cat could only mean that it was an exceed.

"Ah… now if you'll excuse me, I have a few things to do." She gave a slight bow before brushing past her new guild mate and bee-lined for the library – a place of peace and quiet.

Behind her, Kaylee sunk to her knees, "I've never met someone so intimidating before!" she muttered to herself, gulping slightly.

* * *

**So, I guess that's it this time around… I'm sorry for the lack of men in the first two chapters, but as explained earlier, most are out on missions.**

**Well… until next time :) **


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed; **_**M0M3NTAI, GhostOfOnyx, PoisonBanana, Qyresh, Little Wolfie Fox, VioletGardevoir, XxgrayxXbonanza (NATHANO)**_

**Credits in order of appearance:**

**Maurice Axel Hamley – M0M3NTAI**

**Lucas Right – XxgrayxXbonanza**

**Artem Salvik – GhostOfOnyx**

**Havenn Avias – Little Wolfie Fox**

**Kristian Zitrone – PoisonBanana**

**Avril Caster – Candied Snowflakes**

* * *

"I can't believe it. A 3 day escort mission asking for 5 men and in the end all they wanted us to do was dance with their daughters at some stupid party. Ahh, at least one of them offered a good night." A man with a deep, gravelly voice spoke – loudly.

"Axel stop being overly dramatic." Lucas Right – a fairly level headed man, and not to mention, usual partner of Axel's – said calmly. He was usually the one to calm the crazy man who was currently walking beside him, "And what if you got the Count's daughter pregnant?"

Lucas had longish blonde hair with red highlights and sharp, but large cerulean coloured eyes. He was fairly tan and the start of a tattoo was seen on his left bicep, and although you couldn't see it, he also has three earrings on his left ear, hidden beneath his hair. His dress sense quite contrasted his personality; bearing a red tank top with a black leather vest over it, white tight fitting trousers and red combat boots. Most people would see him as intimidating rather than stoic and calm with the occasional perverse side to him.

Then there was Maurice Axel Hamley – a man that went by 3 names – Axel, Alex and Moss. He had long orange-red hair that occasionally looked brown and it was what most would call… an absolute disaster. Some parts were dreadlocks and some parts were braided with the occasional bead weaved through it. In the braided piece right next to his face, was a key hanging onto the end – no one knew why, but he would always check that it's there. His unruly hair was held back by a black bandanna. He wore a baggy V-neck t-shirt that showed some of his dark green guild mark placed over his heart. He had baggy brown pants that ended just below his knees. He walked bare footed at the time and his lower arms were heavily bandaged, although you could see many tattoos from his elbow up.

"And you literally ripped off the tuxedo we had to get you the second we left that place as well." Arty pointed out. He spoke with a Slavic accent, due to the country he was born in.

Axel shrugged, "I wasn't bought using my money, so, whatever." He fastened his pace and strutted ahead of the group as they entered Hutan forest.

Following after him was Lucas, then Arty.

Arty – or Artem – was a heterochromatic; his right eye was blue and his left, green. His hair was choppy and a sandy brown colour. He was slightly tanned and had a lean, muscular build. He wore a black and silver high collar trench coat, a white shirt, loose baggy white pants and black combat boots. There was a noticeable scar on the right side of his jawline.

There was a noticeable path that was just made of dirt and small stones, but Arty found himself going out of his way to step on the dry leaves, making small crackling sounds as the 5 walked through the forest.

"Ah, isn't tomorrow the bathing competition?" Havenn spoke his thoughts out loud, looking up toward the canopy where small bits of sunlight were streaming through. He was teammates with Arty and two of the girls back at the guild.

"Aberidus." Kristian muttered, shaking his head.

"Huh? What was that?" Havenn asked.

"A-ber-i-dus." Kristian droned out, a small smirk visible on his lips, "Watch out."

"Is this another prank of – whoa!" Havenn landed face first in a pile of leaves, having stumbled over a tree root. He lifted himself back up and hurried to catch up to the other 4 who had continued to walk ahead, sniggering at his misfortune.

This 'occasionally' clumsy, yet very loyal boy had light brown, messy hair with a white-brown streak at the front, and yellow eyes. His attire consisted of a dark red unzipped hoodie, which was folded to make it seem shorter, a light gray V-neck long sleeved shirt and dark blue jeans with black sneakers to finish it off. Around his neck was one of his most valued items; a silver necklace in which its charm was created to look like a tornado.

"With over 171,476 words – or over 1,025,000 if you count all of its different meanings – in the English language, you just had to go and make a new one didn't you?" Havenn sighed, brushing a stray leaf out of his hair.

Kristian shrugged nonchalantly and smiled, "New words are made every day."

The prankster mage had blue eyes and dark brown hair, which was tied up in a ponytail that went halfway down his back. He was tall, slightly muscular, and had extremely pale skin – paper white almost. He wore a simple outfit; dark brown pants, a white t-shirt and black shoes. On his hands was either a red or blue glove.

The 5 kept walking down the faintly visible path in silence, Axel suddenly taking a turn toward the right, everyone else in tow.

"You almost missed the turn." Kristian pointed out.

Havenn looked over at the prankster, "Sometimes the mark is hard to see if you're not paying attention. Even I've missed it once or twice." He shrugged sheepishly.

Behind them, where they had turned was a particular tree. Engraved on the tree, at around eye level, were some unknown symbols – of only which a guild member would know as the mark to be able to reach the guild. There were several routes to get there, and about 10 trees were marked in the same engraving, any tree that had that mark meant for you to turn right. It was the only way to reach the guild unless it was a coincidence. Hutan forest was ranked in the top 5 for travellers getting lost within the trees.

Lucas looked over to the side and blinked his cerulean eyes, "Ah, speaking of which. A bear." He pointed toward a small clearing where a large mother bear seemed to be tending to its cubs.

The mother didn't seem to notice the group as they watched quietly. The cubs ran circles around her, playing chase. One of the cubs jumped over and attacked the other as the mother mewled at them to stop.

"We speak of freedom, love, and strength," Kristian muttered.

Havenn continued for him, "In this home of Black Bears."

After watching the young family for moments longer, the turned and continued on their way, leaves crunching and twigs snapping as the path began to disappear.

"I see the guild!" Arty shouted cheerily and went ahead, quickly taking a few jumps and distorting the air as if jumping on stepping stones to help him up to the decking of the guild.

The others followed suit, Havenn creating a small tornado to lift him up, as the others grabbed a well hidden ladder and scaled up it one by one in record time.

Axel threw open the doors with a loud bang, alerting everyone in the mess hall. Most guild members went back to what they were doing while some welcomed them back.

"Yo, what's up?" Gilbert, who was closest to them, looked up in greeting his mouth full of fish and chips. A trace of tartar sauce was seen on his face, "How was the mission?"

Kristian shrugged, "Boring mission, no one laughed at my jokes. People were far too serious for their own good."

"If it counts, I learnt how do dance." Arty added in, childish as usual. He was soon called over by a few guild mates and left toward the bar, where most of the guild seemed to have subsided (it was around midday), to socialize, Havenn following after him – his mouth already watering for his long awaited ice cream.

"Axel slept with the count's daughter." Lucas gave a light hearted laugh. It seemed his personality in the guild took a 360; releasing a warm, inviting aura and showing a slightly more perverse side to him. He slipped into the seat across from Gilbert and the two seemed to engage into a lengthy conversation.

Kristian went off in search of another guild mate to pull pranks on, and Axel had quickly returned to his room, and then left the guild once again, speaking to himself. No one payed any mind though, everyone knew he was mentally unstable. He was probably going out to pick up a few girls from town.

* * *

"A new guild member? Where?" Arty looked around, trying to locate an unfamiliar face.

"I believe she is in her dorm room." Joe looked up from the glass he was drying.

"Are you talking about Kaylee? Because if you are, she just came back out and is talking with Eva, Ray and Ru." Angel pointed toward the area in which the couches and beanbags were clustered at.

"Hmm, I'll say hi later." Havenn murmured through a mouthful of his favourite treat, which had just been teleported through the courtesy of Arty's older sister, Alexandria.

"I wonder if she has a good sense of humour though… maybe Jenx, Kristian and I could team up and prank her." Arty wondered out loud, an evil plan already forming in his head.

Joe's voice cut through his thoughts, "I think Jenx has already pulled her welcome prank. I don't think that Kaylee was too annoyed by it…" the bartender tried to recall, he'd could see pretty much anything that occurred in the mess hall from his spot in the bar.

"Of course, I never get to pull the first prank." Arty sighed.

Angel patted his back in pity, "Tough luck hey? You can't help the fact we have a clown mage and a prankster mage residing within our guild. I'm stuck with empty pockets tonight. I owe Rhythm another meal." She sighed sorrowfully.

* * *

"My! Isn't it Avril? Working hard I see." A street vendor waved her over.

Avril Caster was a quiet and observant girl of sorts. The short statured girl had curly blue-green hair and round cerulean eyes. Avril wore a long-sleeved white blouse, with ruffles at the end of her sleeves and at the collar. A short, high waisted blue skirt sat around her waist and black tights were worn underneath. She was also currently wearing her favoured footwear; flat, brown sandals. On her right wrist was a pure white ribbon, the guild mark drawn in black ink at one end.

"Ah, Mr Hiyoshi." Avril greeted with a smile and gave a slight bow.

The man chuckled, "No need to be so formal, you are well known around these parts. Do you not like to travel for your missions?"

"I prefer to be back at the guild by night." She said quietly.

He blinked, "Well, whatever the reason, how about you take some chocolate with you? As a token for your hard work in town." He held out a small box as Avril took it gingerly.

Of all sweets, chocolate was the only thing she despised. Bowing down anyway, she sighed and let out a small "Thank you."

"No problem! At this day and age I've never seen others with such great manners like yours. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm one of the judges tomorrow, so bring something good to the stage okay?" Mr Hiyoshi bade good bye as Avril walked off, waving good bye as she did so.

"Ah… I'll just give it to Hikari…" She muttered to herself, and then stopped at the edge of the forest, looking up at the tall trees. It was just past noon, judging from the position on the sun. Her stomach grumbled as she took her first steps into the forest, "Lunch sounds good right about now…" she sighed.

She hurried toward the guild and made it there a few minutes later, having taken her favourite shortcut route.

"Avril! Welcome back!" A few people instantly greeted.

She put a warm smile on her face and nodded, walking over to the bar.

"Please give this to Hikari when you see her." Avril handed Joe the package of chocolates and sat down on one of the stools, "Also… could I have a candied apple?" she licked her lips at the thought of the sweet.

"Who gave you the chocolate?" He asked, holding out her order.

She took the apple and sighed quietly, "Mr Hiyoshi in town."

"Ooh, Avril… you're back! Have you finished that painting that Master requested?" Rhythm walked over placed an empty mug on the bar and asked.

"Almost finished observing." She nodded.

"That's good… wait. Just observing?!"

The blue-green haired girl nodded again, "Yeah, I want to capture each person in a way that shows their true personality."

"Well, we have a new member… I forgot her name… but anyway, you might just have to observe more." The other mage smiled before turning around, "Angel owes me dinner, so I'm heading off. I heard there was a new 5 star restaurant opening in the next town across."

"But lunch just passed…"

Rhythm laughed, before pulling a face, "I'm going to walk there, don't want a stomach ache later, seven course meals can fill you or kill you." she joked.

* * *

**Okie dokie, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, albeit short. Although it is a day late from what I planned, I'm proud I was able to get it out (at least) today. It seems as though my teachers really like to give me tests, essays and assignments :P**

**Ah, well. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out on time?**

**I think there'll be about 2 more introduction chapters before anything else happens.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the late chapter (again), I received my form for the subjects I want next year and got excited over all of that. And then I was completely brain dead about how I should write this chapter. Hope it flows…**

**Thank you to those of you who reviewed: **_**GhostOfOnyx, Candied Snowflakes, Phantom Wish, scrawlx1012, XxgrayxXbonanza (NATHANO), Qyresh, Little Wolfie Fox **_**and **_**M0M3NTAI**_

**Also, just a warning, there's the tiniest part of German in here but it's probably wrong (to those of you who are fluent) since I just used Google translate. xD**

**Credits in the following order ~**

**Hikari Simon – xoxo-vanilla**

**Sol Zeus – AHarvin**

**Hitomi Sato – Rachel .Ongaku**

**Hisoka Sato – Rachel .Ongaku**

**Marcus Arcanusfa – scrawlx1012**

* * *

"Don't. Touch. My. Food." Hikari said sinisterly, smacking Arty's hand away. She then smiled brightly, "Got it?"

The said boy gulped and backed away slightly, now ignoring the rumbling in his stomach. He couldn't help it… her food just looked so good. It wasn't the first time this had happened. He guessed he was just hoping that the further he pressed, the more likely Hikari would give in for the sake of him not pestering her.

Hikari was a short girl with a pale complexion. Her bright blue eyes stood out amongst the rest of her facial features and the bangs from her long dark brown hair were tied into braids and clipped around the back of her head. She wore a blue vest that was held together by gold buttons with a white tank top underneath. She had a blue skirt with a gold hemming on with suspenders hanging down loosely at her waist. On her arms she had white elbow length gloves with a blue band and two gold stripes, and on her feet there were blue knee high boots with yet another stripe of gold at the rim.

"And that's probably the last warning you'll ever get." Someone in the background chimed in.

The brunette nodded seriously, munching at her food when Havenn came over and dropped a box of chocolate onto the table.

"From Joe, who said to thank Avril because she didn't want them." He stated as her eyes lit up and she took the chocolate greedily, finishing off the rest of her meal in lightning speed before ripping open the chocolates.

"Guys… Hikari is eating chocolate…" Ray called out. Eva nodded along with him, a questioning face of 'Is that okay?' seen clearly on her features.

"Someone can just knock her out later. Or get Jenx or Kristian to play with her until she's tired and falls asleep." Lucas called back from his seat across from Gilbert.

"But then Jenx gets tired too, and she snores like a freaking elephant. Besides, she's too innocent and blushes every time 'dirty' Hikari comes out." Gilbert muttered under his breath, sighing inwardly.

"Senpai…~" a sweet voice next to him purred. Gilbert jumped back and fell off of his seat as Lucas laughed in the background.

The others in the guild just sighed and went back to their own things as per usual. They had grown accustomed to Hikari's love of chocolate – and her change of personality as an outcome. Sometimes she was restrained from eating chocolate – especially on missions, but one pout got everyone running off to buy her the cocoa sweet.

"You know what I want to try?" Hikari giggled to the boy on the floor, she leaned closer, "A French Kiss… Chu~."

He leant away slightly before groaning, "Verdammte Scheiße! Sol, help me."

The said boy, who'd been watching from the other side of the guild with his favourite bowl of extra spicy ramen, shook his head in utter disappointment at the state his teammate was in. Of course though, he'd never leave a teammate behind in a time of need.

"Dark Éricture: Sleep." He spoke. The young girl immediately drifted off to another land as Sol walked over with a smile on his face, "Happy now?"

Sol was a rather calm individual who rarely lost his temper. He was quite the handsome young man, with spiked platinum blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore a tight fitting white shirt that stretched over his muscles – giving the girls some eye candy – and black pants.

"Yeah, yeah." Gilbert grunted as he got up off the floor, "Thanks man."

Sol stuck his hands in his pant pockets in a laid back matter. "We just got back from a mission and you're already causing trouble in the guild." He raised an eyebrow, "And you made me abandon my food for you." He joked.

Gilbert rolled his eyes, "It's a natural talent."

"If I didn't know any better, you'd be pretty cocky."

"Whatever."

* * *

A pair of eyes desperately moved back and forth, faster and faster as the woman continued to read the book, flipping the page every few minutes or so. She was completely engaged in the book she was reading, curled up on the small couch in the furthest corner of the guild's library.

Few people like to come in here, only to do some research before a mission, and the occasional book bug in the guild – which was mainly her and Andrea. Both girls spent plenty of their free time in the library, scouring the seemingly never ending shelves of books that had been squashed into a small room. Yet, it was still cosy.

Hitomi and Andrea had a mutual kind of acquaintance. Nod in greeting, open a book, and be pulled into another world.

While Andrea preferred her fantasy novels, Hitomi like to source out all the books about magic.

The girl had large, round green eyes and red hair that was styled to be short and a little spikey at the back and her bangs were longer at the front. She was quite petite with pale skin and her signature green, fingerless gloves were on her hands. Her feet were clad in white tennis shoes and her guild mark was exposed since she wore jean shorts. The girl also had a green tank top on.

Hitomi was one of the Sato siblings in the guild. Her younger brother – Hisoka – was probably out in the mess hall gossiping about the latest news and probably trying to get the girls to tell him the tricks they'll use tomorrow for the monthly competition.

Wait. That was _totally _cheating. And _so_ not fair.

Hitomi quickly scanned through the last paragraph of the chapter and slammed the book shut, placing it carefully on the sofa as she got up. She stormed – in a quiet manner – through the library and into the main hall.

* * *

Hisoka smiled as Ray and Eva talked about their last mission. They'd recently taken up a simple escort mission, the Mayor's personal messenger blabbering on about everything private, thinking it'll fall on deaf ears, but of course, the pair had actually listened quite tentatively.

The messenger had actually told them that the town was falling into debt, and the message he was sending was to some rich Duke to ask for a loan. But since there had been a group of bandits recently threatening the town, they'd asked for a mage escort to go along with the man.

Who would have known that the messenger was so loose lipped.

In the space of a few hours they'd learnt pretty much every itty-bitty secret of Tipil city, well known for, well pretty much nothing. Except maybe that they had quite unique laws.

Eva raised her hands to sign as Ray translated, "The law no street lights at night was because his son tricked him into making it, just so he could spook some girl he liked out. Apparently, when she found out she was being stalk, he got off with just a day of community service."

"Did you know that the Mayor has a foot fetish? That's why he only allows people to wear sandals in his town. Well, excluding us…" Eva signed, giggling silently.

Ray chuckled slightly at that too, "We were passing through the back cliff when the bandits that were threatening them just casually walked out as well. And guess what? They were wearing sandals."

Hisoka raised an eyebrow, "Scandalous much?" he commented.

"Yeah, it's easy to say that the Mayor's co-workers were scamming him." Ray said.

"Have you met the new girl yet? Her name is Kaylee, I really like her magic as well." Eva changed the topic.

"Ooh, a new member…" Hisoka thought about it for a moment, "I might have seen her. Was she wearing green?"

"Yeah, brown hair too." Ray added in.

"Mmm, probably. I'll say hi later, she might know a few things I don't." He smiled kindly.

The other boy was about to add in his own little piece of gossip when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw his older sister come out through the library doors – unusual, in his mind, as she would hole up in there until sundown.

Hisoka was a year younger than Hitomi, at 20 years old, he had quite the body. His hair was also a bright red, short and spiky. He had slanted, light gray eyes and was shorter than the average man. His pale skin seemed flawless without a blemish or scar in sight. His torso was covered with a solid blue button up shirt with jeans and white tennis shoes.

"Hisoka! Don't you dare cheat!" Hitomi screamed to the opposite side of the guild hall as she briskly walked over.

The said boy looked over to his screaming sister and sighed, "What do you mean, cheat?"

"Cheating is a horrible and unfair thing to do! You know I'm strongly against that!" She spoke aggressively.

Someone stepped in between them calmly and held out his hands in a 'stop' motion, "Hey, hey. Calm down. Act like adults! I'm younger than both of you and yet you're still arguing. Set an example for the younger guild mates."

"It's okay." Hisoka pushed Marcus out of the way, his voice changed to a reasoning tone and he sighed, "Hitomi, sometimes you shouldn't just jump to assumptions. I was merely gossiping with a few others back there about things we've found out from our recent missions."

"Huh? Oh… sorry. I did it again didn't I?" She immediately backed away and scratched her head in embarrassment.

Hisoka nodded slowly, "Just go back and read your book okay? I promise not to cheat." He held his hands up like swearing an oath.

"Okay." She merely turned and walked slowly back to the library.

Hisoka turned to Marcus and patted him on the back, "Thanks man. She'll be fine once she cools her head off."

Marcus had short, shaved black hair and hazel eyes. He was quite tall, and had a dark brown skin tone. Around his neck was a rosary that had been gifted to him by his mother and his navy blue guild mark could be seen in the middle of his right elbow. He wore a navy waistcoat and trousers, along with black sandals. To finish it off, he was also accessorised with sunglasses and a black fedora.

"It's nothing." Marcus mumbled quietly, turning back to his spot in the quieter part of the guild next to the library doors. He sat down with a content sigh as a small window nearby let him soak up the sun. He brought out a small puzzle book to keep his mind working and solved two of them in a matter of minutes.

Too easy.

The doors beside him creaked open and he looked up to see the Ice Dragon Slayer.

"Marcus, I didn't know you'd come back." Andrea, who'd just walked out with Jack in her arms, greeted.

"Actually, I've just been holed up in my room this whole time." Marcus said quietly.

"Ah…" Andrea nodded her head in understanding. Her eyes widened as she sniffed the air, "Pastries… Alexandria seems to be making pastries." She said quietly in a delightful tone, walking off toward the bar, leaving Marcus in his peace.

* * *

**That was kind of a deflating ending, but I am honestly really happy I've gotten this far in the story (I know it's nothing, but I feel like it's a great achievement), and this is all thanks to your reviews and great support! You guys keep me really motivated :D**

**The next chapter should be the last introduction one! Yay (I'm actually excited and crossing my fingers that you like the arcs).**

**Ah well, I've decided to be mainstream and have some sort of nickname at the end of my chapters so, eh.**

**-Crisis**


	6. Chapter 6

**Welp! I hope you all enjoy this update ~**

**Regarding the last chapter, I'm reallllly sorry to **_**Candied Snowflakes**_** for getting your OC's name wrong! I've just went and fixed it.**

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed! I feel so loved :D  
**_**Bethino, Phantom Wish, Rachel .Ongaku, Poison Banana, M0M3NTAI, barkingupthewrongkey, Qyresh, GhostOfOnyx, and Candied Snowflakes**_

**Credits appear in the following order – **

**Alexandria Salvik – GhostOfOnyx**

**Kalypso Zorraster – Phantom Wish**

**Chang Tousophon – SuperVegetaSSJ2**

**Goldana Goldsmith – ManhattanTheory**

**Christy Juniter – Fairy-Chan 554**

* * *

Andrea sat down on a stool at the bar as Alexandria placed a plate with an apricot danish and an unhealthy dollop of vanilla ice cream on top of it in front of her. Jack sat atop of her head as she devoured the sweet pastry, her face kept straight, but her icy blue eyes told otherwise.

"This is really good." She mumbled quietly, making the barmaid smile.

Alexandria was the older Salvik in the guild. At age 24, she was quite short, and had a petite frame. She had long, sandy brown hair that cascaded down her back, and lightly tanned skin. Her eyes shined blue, and she had the caring aura of an older sister-like figure. She was dressed in a simple blue and white tank top with white, baggy pants and leather sandals.

"Thank you!" Alexandria clapped her hands in delight. Her voice had a Slavic accent to it as she spoke.

Andrea gave a slight nod before standing up from the bar, satisfied with her snack. Her empty seat was immediately replaced with another girl in the guild – Kalypso Zorraster.

"Hey Kal, up for some apple pie?" Alexandria said as a plate of pie, apple sauce oozing out of it with a blob of cream, appearing in her hands.

"Wow Alexandria, you always know what kind of pie I feel like!" Kal chirped.

The girl had short, raspberry coloured hair tied into two low ponytails and big, doe-like purple eyes. Underneath her right eye was a black, swirl tattoo. She had a tanned skin and was quite skinny – although she still managed to keep a curvaceous figure. She wore a black tube top that stopped under her chest and a short-sleeved jocks jacket over the top. On the left side, it had her initials printed in purple with a white outline, as was her name on the back of the jumper. The only difference was the cartoon skull behind her name. She also wore a blue and white skirt with orange frills underneath. Her legs had pink fishnet stockings on them and an orange and white stripped sock on her right leg. On her feet were purple skater shoes with the same cartoon skull facing outward.

"Did you want a drink? I think Joe is on a break at the moment, so I can only fix you a simple juice, smoothie or glass of water." She offered.

Kal shook her head and took a large bite out of the fruity dessert, some of the pastry crumbling and falling back onto her plate.

The barmaid wiped down the counter before leaning across it as she watched Kal eat, teleporting her own small plate of pie in front of her.

"So, a new girl joined our guild this morning. I think you two, and Hikari should join a team. You've been looking for a partner to work with, haven't you?" She suggested.

Kal put a finger to her chin in thought, "Sounds like a good idea. What's her magic?"

"I heard from Eva and Ray that she was a holder-type mage – like you and Hikari, although you can do a little casting spells can't you? My instincts tell me that you'll make a good team." Alexandria flashed her pearly whites, "She's a few years older than the two of you though."

"Age doesn't matter…" Kal brushed it off, as it was the least of her worries, "What if she doesn't like me?"

"I think you'll be fine." Alexandria gave her a pat on her shoulder before taking the final bite out of her apple pie.

Kal sighed, she had a bad habit of laughing at others' misfortune, and because of that, most of Black Bear never hung around her for too long. "You know what?" she muttered, mostly to herself, "I just hope you're right."

She jumped off the chair and absentmindedly walked toward the dorm hallway, the door left flung open.

"A teammate huh?" she murmured.

* * *

Chang Tousophon was a tall man who stood at 6'2. He had black hair all around his head besides at the top, where it was red and styled into a faux hawk. His eyes were somewhat slanted, and an intimidating shade of red-orange. He had a long beard with a red streak down the middle, and his red guild mark could be seen on the upper right of his cheek. He had piercings running down the sides of his nose and ears. He was clad in Ebony armour, something rare to find.

As he walked toward the guild, returning from his 20th mission that month, he lit a cigarette and sighed.

The stupid bathing competition was tomorrow, meaning he couldn't go out on another job. The guild had made it compulsory for all members to be there. It wasn't even the guild master himself who made the rule… it had been the girls who'd decided to reinforce it by saying that if anyone from any gender was missing, they'd immediately be disqualified. The new rule had soon led to a guild argument and the destruction of about half of the tree house. The bar had also been ruined, and the bartender wasn't too happy about that.

Let's just say that the money he donated for guild repairs was gone in an instant.

The guild came into view and he disintegrated the rest of his cigarette with his fingertips.

When he entered, few people payed him any attention as he made his way straight to the Master's office. He probably wasn't even in the guild – meditating up on some mountains somewhere. The Master was lucky that he wasn't included in the competition.

He opened the door to put half of his earnings on his desk, but stopped when he saw Jenx scribbling away.

The girl looked up at the sound and smiled sheepishly.

"I forgot it was my turn to fill out the paper work." She explained before he asked.

Walking toward her, he placed the heavily bundle on the edge of the desk and nodded slowly.

"You wear… glasses?" He slightly raised an eyebrow at the polka-dotted rimmed glasses – although he really couldn't care less.

"Occasionally when readin' or drawin'." She muttered, and then groaned, "Now, shoo. I was supposed to send these off yesterday."

"Whatever." He shrugged and left the room, he had no use to be there anyway. Jenx could be just as sadistic as he was as well, so it was no fun blackmailing her to do anything.

Chang skimmed the guild for an empty space and sat down in his favourite spot where he could see the whole of the guild.

Many of the members preferred to sit quietly on the sidelines and observe the other guild mates. He was one of them.

Although he many people called him tough, he did have a peaceful side to him. Opening a small pocket book, he continued the story from where he'd left off.

* * *

Goldana scooped up some of her strawberry dessert and popped it in her mouth. Humming quietly in content, she took the last, small scoop left on her plate.

She them picked up an elegant glass and downed the rest of whatever was inside.

She raised her hand, "The bill please…?" she asked when a waiter immediately bustled over.

He came back soon after, placing a silver tray with a laced piece of paper on it that had her order written down, "Your meal comes to a total of 4,590,000 jewel. A reminder that we do not take cheques."

"Hmmm," Goldana placed a finger to her chin, "It's a bit less than I expected…"

The waiter's face hardened, ready to call security if the casually dressed woman decided to leave without paying. She didn't seem to have any money on her, besides maybe the fact she wore all gold.

"Well, Miss – whether your meal was enjoyable or not, you are still expected to pay…" he trailed off slightly.

"No, of course. Just my last meal cost a little more than this."

The waiter looked taken back. Was it just him, or did a large block of pure gold just appear in front of his eyes?

"Ah, keep the change." Goldana was already at the exit, breaking him from his trance.

"Ah, yes, well. P-Please _do _come again." He quickly stuttered out. He could just imagine the raise he would get for serving such a customer. Lucky that she'd been seated in his area of the restaurant that he served.

Goldana Goldsmith walked down the street as the light faded into darkness.

She was quite tall, standing at 5'9, with fair skin. Her golden eyes went well along with her features and she hand messy, golden-blonde locks that fell to her shoulders. She wore a gold jacket with silver lining, and a brown top. Holding up her black pants was a brown belt with a gold buckle and she also wore black boots. On her ears were a pair of gold earrings and around her neck was a gold necklace with the letters 'Au' on it.

She looked up to the city centre's tower and squinted through the darkness to look at the time.

"Hmm, it's getting late. The usual meeting is probably starting soon." She muttered to herself as she found herself drawn toward a large crowd of people, "Late night sales? Ooh, and for expensive china too. That'd look nice in my room…"

She walked toward the bustling store, forgetting about the meeting. She'll be back soon after the store closes anyway.

* * *

The youngest girl in the guild peeked down from the tree she sat in and bit into her apple. A gray wolf looked up at her with silver eyes, hopeful for some of the sweet fruit.

"Aww, you're just too cute to resist!" she giggled happily and pulled out another apple. She dropped the red skinned apple down. The wolf leapt up and caught it in his mouth, dropping onto his front paws and gnawing at it.

The girl who sat in the tree giggled again, swinging her legs.

This girl was called Christy Juniter. The old man had taken her in and let her join the guild just a year ago after her parent's death – which still remained unknown. Her magic wasn't the type that the Master liked, but he gave the one exception. Christy has sleek red hair with black highlights and her green eyes blinked innocently. Her skin was paper white, and seemed even more so with the bright outfit she wore. It consisted of an orange shirt with an orange skirt. On her feet were orange flats, and you could see a scar on the back of her left leg.

The wolf howled in thanks and scampered off, Christy deciding to jump from the tree and run after it, not wanting to lose the company of her new found friend.

"Wait for me!" she called out, catching up to the slowing wolf.

It stuck its tongue out and cocked its head in confusion.

"I wish I could bring you back to the guild…" Christy sighed as he howled in response, "Ah, speaking of which, I should probably be heading back by now. It should be almost nightfall."

She started to trudge back in the direction of the guild, her slayer's instinct taking her to the right place.

The wolf tailed after her, its long til sweeping across the leaves that littered the forest grounds. The two kept each other company as they jumped over tree roots and ducked under branches.

The forest soon became dark as the sun was replaced with the moon, giving very little light under the canopy.

Christy hummed a small tune as a large tree came into view. If you looked hard enough, you could see an oak door through the tree leaves.

She turned to the wolf, "Well, this is where we have to say goodbye…" she pat its head fondly and he gave a low growl in response, "Maybe we'll meet again one day." She offered, "How about I call you Treasure?"

The newly named Treasure seemed to nod happily and scampered off, leaving Christy to her own devices.

She jumped up and was able to reach the height of the guild due to her magic, before flipping elegantly in front of the large doors.

"I'm back!" She spoke cheerfully, albeit a little shy.

"Christy!" Hitomi yelled, "Where have you been? Our team meeting already started a while ago!"

"I'm coming." She called back, running over to the table that most of the girls of the guild had crowded around. A few were missing, but hopefully they'd be there tomorrow and wouldn't be disqualified.

On the other side of the guild, the boys crowded around another table and talked in hushed tones.

As she sat down, Kalypso listed off the girls who weren't there in a whisper, "Goldana is probably shopping, and Rhythm roped Angel into providing her with another meal a few towns across – you know how much Rhythm likes to eat. They'll probably be back by later tonight. We'll fill them in then."

"So now that you're here Christy," Hitomi started, "Let the games begin."

* * *

**Well, that was the last introduction chapter! YAY! Obviously I haven't introduced the guild master, but he'll appear soon.**

**I also forgot to ask in the previous chapter, if you have any ideas/suggestions for the bathing competition, feel free to review them. I already have some ideas in mind as well.**

**I think it's time to attempt some humour, so I hope ya'll look forward to it.**

**-Crisis**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to everyone for reviewing. :D  
**_**Guest (Aug 30, Chp 6), AHarvin, Qyresh, PoisonBanana, Phantom Wish, M0M3NTAI, SaiyaStyles, SuperVegetaSSJ2, NATHANO (XxgrayxXbonanza), Benthino, Candied Snowflakes, and finally, ManhattanTheory :)**_

**A warning that the first part is mostly dialogue. It's basically to introduce the competition, the judges, and the rules. It probably doesn't make any sense and the chapter isn't as great as I'd hoped it would be, I'm really sorry to get you all so pumped up about it and then letting you all down.**

* * *

"WELCOME to the monthly bathing competition for… BLACK BEAR!" The emcee – Mr Akashi, announced, "Who will win today? The girls?"

There was a roaring cheer and loud wolf whistles.

"Or the boys?"

There were a few polite claps.

Back stage, the boys fumed, "How come no one supports us?"

"That's because we've lost so many times."

"Don't worry, those old geezers out there are just perverts."

On the stage again, the emcee began to introduce the judges for the day.

"Today, as our judges, we have Mr Hiyoshi, the chocolate shack owner!"

The said man stood up from his seat at the judges table and bowed toward the crowd.

"Miss Kikuchi, the flower shop owner!"

She too, stood up and curtseyed. She was quite young, in her early twenties. Maybe the boys could have a chance?

"Mrs Layana, a beautiful mother of two! And finally, Mr Tihan, our town's re-owned soup chef!"

The two stood up and waved to the crowd. They both looked quite excited as it was their first times being up in the judge's panel.

"Now tell me, who are you rooting for today?" Mr. Akashi asked each of them.

"The girls, of course." Mr Hiyoshi smiled.

"Hmm, the boys could really have a chance today. Especially with the challenges that were drawn out of the hat earlier." The young, flower shop owner said.

Mr Tihan put a finger to his chin, "The girls, definitely."

Mrs Layana clasped her hands together, "I think the girls, and they're all so young and youthful. It reminds me of when I was their age." She cooed.

"Well there we have it, the girls already seem to be in the lead…" He announced, "Now, although everybody should know the basic rules by now, let's give them a quick run over. Each event has a particular amount of participants; some are done individually, some in pairs, some in groups. Each member can only participate in 1 challenge. Since there are more girls than boys – I believe the numbers have changed recently and are now 15 to 12 – 3 boys may compete twice. A lacrima device has been linked to each challenger – do not break or touch them. Lastly, _any _form of magic is allowed to prove better in _any_ challenge. _But inflicting injury is not allowed unless told otherwise_." He ended in a whisper with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Today, the competition is going to be the race round. The rules, of course, are quite simple. Read the clues, solve it, and do what it asks of you. When you complete that, you get you next clue where the next participant takes your place. Everything has a win-lose round which gains you points. Judges can also grant you extra points at the end, depending on how well you perform as a team. Now, first up we have a one-member challenge. Remember, we can see you all through the lacrima projectors." Miss Kikuchi said with a thoughtful look, "You both have ten seconds to pick your first participants!"

The crowd waiting in anticipation as for people stepped up onto the stage.

They all seemed calm on the outside, but inside, their hearts beat with excitement.

"From the girl's side, we have Chein Driskill!" The brunette stepped forward as they were announced, "I'd like to say, quiet, but deadly."

"As for the boys, we have Chang Tousophon! It looks like it's a solo up against another solo member of the guild! The boys might stand a chance!"

The two guild members soon received their first clue and the countdown started, "This challenge starts in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… GO!"

Chang immediately rushed off the stage while ripping open the clue, whereas Chein decided to stay behind and the whole clue before running around and wasting her energy.

'_Find the broken down walls,  
Look from above,  
Find your target,  
You have 3, 2, 1…'_

Chein's eyebrows shot up in recognition. Broken down walls? That could only mean the old ruins in the outskirts of town.

She walked past them every time she decided to go down the cobble stoned path to Hibiscus rather than catching the train.

Jumping off of the stage, she quickly made her way to the right, heading toward the place of cracked walls and overgrown moss.

It seemed Chang was thinking the same thing, as she could hear him coming from a different direction. She began to run a little faster to try and beat him.

Just before reaching her destination, she spotted another red envelope. But there was only one. Slightly confused, she picked it up anyway and ripped it open. Inside was another piece of paper and a blue envelope. The confusion disappeared in an instant. The blue envelope could only mean that she made it to the ruins first.

If you make it to the 'battle' location first, you get the upper hand of knowing the details to the challenge. You see, if you win, you have to go and find another red envelope within the area. But you had to pass on the blue envelope you find beforehand to the loser, who in return has to wait five minutes before they can open the clue. If you lost, you had to wait the 5 minutes to open the blue envelope while the other looks for the red.

Pulling out the slip of paper, she scanned over the details.

'_Pin them down,  
But do not injure,  
If you win,  
Grab the next clue,  
To pass on to your peer'_

'So it's asking me to go to a higher place to find my enemy, and then pin them down?' The girl thought to herself.

Shrugging, she leapt up onto the ledge where the ruins sat, and ran to the middle of the open field before making a stone pillar beneath her feet, shooting up toward the sky.

She looked around and immediately saw Chang – who seemed to be struggling against some sort of rune barrier.

No more than 3 seconds later did the barrier disappear and Chang stepped into the location.

'So I have to go and pin him down?' she asked herself, 'Well, here goes.'

The pushed herself off from the stone pillar, flying toward Chang. His back was turned, and Chein saw it as the perfect opportunity to attack. He may be clad in armour, but she was used to using brute force.

"Stone Dragon's Fist!" Her clenched hands became encased in stone as she fell closer and closer toward Chang's torso.

The man suddenly turned around and took a hold of her fist, stopping her in her tracks as she squirmed to get free.

Chang smirked, knowing she felt uncomfortable, but proceeded to light another cigarette with his free hand anyway.

He inhaled, and then exhaled, watching Chein wrinkle her nose in disgust at the extremely strong smell. Letting go of her wrist, she pulled it back and rubbed it gently.

"I ain't goin' easy on you." He looked down at her with intimidating eyes.

Chein frowned, she wasn't about to lose this either.

They both stepped back a fair distance from each other, eying each other carefully.

It was Chang who made the first move, unsheathing one of his swords as black fire began to swirl around it dangerously.

In turn, Chein's body hardened into stone, protecting her.

Running toward each other, they both clashed with a wave of magical energy that blew away some of their surroundings. A dust cloud formed and covered the events that were happening.

In fact, from where the stage was, the audience could only pick up the sounds and grunts coming from their fight from the lacrima. As the dust cloud finally thinned out, it was clear who the winner was.

Chang kneeled on the ground, Chein stuck beneath the vice grip he had on her neck.

"I win." He smirked.

Standing up, he looked around to find the red envelope. It stood out and was easy to spot. Take hold of it, he opened it and read the contents before talking into his lacrima piece.

"It's a three-member challenge. Joe, Sol and Ray, you're up next."

The three said boys jumped from the stage as the girls sighed.

"She did really well though, figuring out the clue first." Alexandria commented, trying to lift everyone's spirits up.

The girls nodded, "Whoever is up next, we'll avenge her."

They continued to watch the boys run to where Chang was for the next few minutes when Chein's voice suddenly came through the lacrima device, "Uh, Eva, Ru and Angel. Please do well." She said awkwardly.

The three stood up and looked at each other, "Let's do this!"

* * *

**First off, I am really, really, really, sorry for the short chapter. I haven't had a great week, and school is handing out multiple assignments for each subject since they need to write reports =.=**

**Secondly, I didn't put much action in the chapter, because I still want the missions' arc to be more of a surprise where you get to see everyone fight and wield their magic etc.**

**Lastly, even though I was never asked, I'm going to do a shout out anyway. So this goes to XxgrayxXbonaza, who is also making an OC story – feel free to submit, although it was created some time ago, so I'm not quite sure if submissions are still open. Nonetheless, I'll see ya'll next chapter… (still accepting suggestions for the competition as well)**

**-Crisis**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you all so much for your supportive reviews!  
**_**Little Wolfie Fox, Benthino, ManhattanTheory, Qyresh, Phantom Wish, PoisonBanana, GhostOfOnyx and SuperVegetaSSJ2  
**_

**[It's honestly amazing how I'm so used to writing all of your usernames now :D]**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, it may seem a bit choppy and rushed at the end. :P**

* * *

Chang sighed as he finally saw three figures approach him.

"It took you guys long enough." He growled, shoving the piece of paper in Sol's hands.

The blonde opened and smoothed it out. He immediately frowned at what he read.

_SUPPORT_

Sol flipped the piece of paper over in his hands – several times, "Is this all it says?" he looked at Chang questioningly.

The man shrugged, "If there was something else, I would've told you guys." He began to walk away before he overstayed his welcome and caused the boys to lose the points he'd just earned.

Ray, Sol and Joe looked at one another.

"Well, what kind of support are they asking for?" Ray asked.

Joe pondered for moments before speaking, "What if they're asking to support each other as team mates?"

"Sounds plausible." Ray nodded, "But… support each other in what?"

The small group of three lapsed into silence as they pondered on their thoughts. They realised that they'd spent a long time thinking when the girls rushed past them, heading toward Chein who had been waiting patiently.

"Chein! Sorry for the wait! Eva was having trouble catching her breath." Angel called with a wave of her hand, "What does the clue say?"

The Dragon Slayer held out the piece of paper for the three girls to see.

"Support…" Ru read out loud, her hair covered with a furry white beanie. But a strand left untucked showed and orange colour. She reached out to take the piece of paper in her hands, but at the slightest brush of the paper, she quickly withdrew them, "The clue is made from water paper." She shuddered.

Angel quickly caught on, "Why water paper? Does that mean that this is only half of the clue?" she took the piece of paper from Chein's hands and thanked her before points were deducted from her staying too long.

There was a rustle of paper and both Angel and Ru looked at Eva, who was scribbling something in her note pad. She flipped the note pad over for the two girls to see, "_The only water source I can think of nearby is the water fountain."_ Eva had opted for writing in a notebook for the day, as signing slowly to make sure Angel and Ru could decipher what she was saying would take too long.

Angel snapped her fingers, "Perfect! What are we waiting for? We should get going!"

They turned around and saw Joe 'quietly' sneaking back to his team mates.

"That… I didn't even notice his presence. Cheater." Angel mumbled under her breath.

Ru nodded along, "Sometimes I wonder if he really doesn't have magic."

Eva took a hold of their arms, dragging them along for a short while before the two realised that they should probably get going before the boys beat them.

"Come on, let's go!" Angel called as she sped off, leaving a trail of dust behind. Ru ran after her, this time dragging Eva along in case she ran out of breath.

Meanwhile, the boys ran after them, hot on their tails.

Both teams pulled up to the fountain at the same time, bending over to catch their breath as Angel and Sol dipped the clue in the water.

They waited for the words to appear on the paper and showed it to the other two, rather than reading it out loud.

_Build a pillar of SUPPORT in the river separating us from Tsukishima.  
You have ten minutes.  
Bonus points for presentation._

"This is a completely different type of support we bargained for… our magic doesn't work well with this." Angel frowned at the clue, "We should go though. Hopefully we can pull through."

The girls immediately rushed off again in the direction of the river with the boys quick to follow. Ray stopped moments after, having spotted a red envelope out of the corner of his eye. He picked it up and caught up to his team mates.

Ripping open the envelope, he scanned through its contents.

"It's a spell to stop time and let us get ahead. Either we can use it now to reach the river first, or earn ourselves an extra few minutes to build our pillar." Ray said, only loud enough for Sol and Joe to hear.

"I say we use it later. The girls can run faster to catch up when we're gone, but they can't catch up on time to make a pillar – it'd become unstable if it's too rushed." Sol suggested as Joe nodded in agreement.

* * *

"So much running…" Ru huffed, still dragging a stumbling Eva behind her.

"We're almost there!" Angel spoke encouragingly.

The river came into view, the water a sparkling crystal blue and the river bed full of small plants and flowers. As they arrived, the flowers seemed to bow down at them, the petals opening up into full bloom to show off their beauty.

"That's so sweet of you!" Ru cried, "I'll be sure to ask for your help if I need it." She told the flowers.

"Uh, Ru… we have work to do?" Angel said in an 'anytime now' manner. Eva had already started looking around for something to build their pillar with.

"Sorry." She scratched at her beanie sheepishly as the boys arrived.

They huddled up and whispered a few words before Ray and Joe ran off to find supplies and Sol stayed to cast some runes to make a small structure and help support the pillar.

"They're already getting ahead!" Ru fretted.

There was a tap on her shoulder and she turned around to read Eva's note, _"Calm down… I just thought of something."_ Angel also came and huddled closer.

She flipped the page and continued to scribble down her plan, _"You can manipulate plants and things… so why can't we just place a tree in the river and make it all nice and pretty?" _she smiled brightly, causing Ru to smile too.

"That's a good idea… trees don't like me much anyway." Ru wrinkled her nose, yet her eyes showed slight amusement. She looked around for a promising tree and held out her hands, her palms facing toward it, "Take-over point!"

The tree began to shiver, red eyes forming angrily and its lower branches twisted themselves downward, making arms. The tree slowly uprooted itself and began making its way to the river, nearly knocking Sol over in the process. The tree that Ru had picked was quite tall, submerging itself into the bottom of the river with at least another 4 meters of its trunk above the water's surface.

Ru then let her magic dispel and the tree seemed to fall back into peace, its branches returning back to its normal state and its eyes disappearing.

"So, now wha –" Angel was cut off when all of the girls suddenly froze.

Ray and Joe appeared again, making Sol sigh in relief.

"It was a bit early to cast the time freezing spell, but it'll have to do. They're already ahead because of Ru's magic." Sol explained, as if the tree wasn't obvious enough, "Did you find anything? I already set up a stable structure with runes."

"Great. Well, I hope the town doesn't mind – especially Miss Kikuchi, but, I cut down the pillar with the massive flower statue on it." Ray smiled easily and jabbed a thumb behind him, where the pillar sat, "Turns out it's hollow inside, so it was pretty light."

Sol nodded and jogged over to help Ray and Joe to lift the pillar to place into the river.

As they did so, Ray cast a glance over at Eva, who stood frozen and remained unblinking. But then he frowned. Did she just twitch? The spell was supposed to last for another 3 minutes.

He brushed the thought off and continued to push the marble pillar when he realised that Joe and Sol had stopped helping him.

"How long is the spell supposed to last?" Joe asked quietly.

"5 minutes… why?" Ray whispered back. In fact, he wasn't sure why he was whispering. Then he heard it, loud and clear almost as if she wanted them to hear.

"Ahem," Angel spoke in her loudest voice, "Now, let me get back to what I wanted to ask earlier. You need the top of a pillar to be flat. Should we just chop the top off?"

There was a rustling of paper as Eva replied.

Joe and Sol looked at Ray pointedly.

"That was only about 2 minutes… what happened?" Sol asked.

Ray just groaned and hit his head lightly on the pillar, "It's because of Eva. She cancelled out the amount of time the spell was supposed to last."

Joe nodded in realisation, "She has nullification magic, doesn't she?"

"Well we can't use the spell twice, so we'll just have to make do." Sol gestured for them to continue pushing.

When they'd finally planted the pillar into the river, there was only around a minute or so left.

The boys looked over to the girls who were happily decorating away; Ru using her magic to place flowers between the ridges of the tree, Eva painting trunk and the few leaves that they'd left on, and Angel carved intricate designs into the bare trunk while happily chewing away at a carrot.

At least they looked like they were having great fun.

The boy quickly threw a few decorative, nice-looking plants onto the pillar as time quickly ran out.

Both teams then stood back by the river bank, wondering what they should do next when a small boat came floating down the river, slowly making its way down to the teams by being pushed along with the current.

As Eva bent down to pick up the basket that was placed inside, her smile grew wider as she took out a red envelope and waved it around at Ru and Angel.

The two other girls looked at each other, "Does this mean we won?" They said in sync with massive smiles stretched across their faces.

Joe reached down and flipped over the basket that Eva had dropped, revealing the blue envelope with the word 'BOYS' on it.

"What a letdown." Sol shrugged, "Although I'm guessing it's because Miss Kikuchi is a judge and didn't like the fact you cut down her pillar."

"There wasn't anything else around…" Ray said, sitting down on the grass to wait until their 5 minutes was up. And yet they'd technically had a 7 minute handicap because of Chang and the spell. Unfortunately, the girls were able to catch up and there was nothing they could do about it. They were out played… who knew girls could be so cunning?

The boys sat there in silence as they heard the pitter-patter of two pairs of feet. They looked over at the girls and saw Avril and Hikari standing there.

"Good job!" Hikari high-fived them all as Avril just took the clue and read through it shyly.

"A two member challenge?" Ray murmured thoughtfully, keeping his eyes locked on Eva – who seemed to be basking in happiness.

The three continued to watch as the 5 girls quietly discussed over a few things before Eva, Angel and Ru left with a quick good luck and wave.

Avril and Hikari remained with their backs turned toward them, making sure that they couldn't see what they were doing.

Sol sighed and tapped at his lacrima, waiting for a signal to say 'time was up'. The wait seemed like forever, but yet, he was secretly surprised that the two girls still stood there – seemingly unable to figure the clue out.

Simultaneously, all three lacrimas on the boys' wrists beeped and Joe quickly opened the clue.

"2 members, who knows who?" Joe read out loud before he looked up. They'd done this event before and he'd participated in it, so he knew what was going to happen in the next round, "Maybe we should pick Artem and Hisoka. They're like social butterflies."

"Or we could pick you again along with someone else. You stand at the bar and have a good view of everyone in the guild. You should know a thing or two about everyone right?" Sol suggested.

Ray shook his head, "I agree with Joe, it should be Arty and Hisoka." He spoke into the lacrima piece at the same time, leaving no room for argument.

They glanced over at Hikari and Avril one last time. They seemed to finally figure out where they needed to go. Too bad Joe already knew which direction to point Arty and Hisoka in.

They weren't going to lose the next round. It was a definite.

* * *

**Another chapter finished and polished! I know I said this a few chapters ago, but I'm really proud of what I've written, and I'm really happy you guys are liking my work. I feel like my self esteem has rose from almost nothing to 100 :)**

**You're all so supportive and (oh pineapples) get what I mean when teachers get into this stupid little competition to see who can give us the most homework. You all are always telling me 'all the best and good luck on your studies.' So, I'd like to say; GOOD LUCK ON EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING AND (even if I've never met any of you all before), I'M HERE TO SUPPORT YOU ALL THE WAY!**

**It's amazing how this site can bring all of us together, even when we're halfway across the world from each other!**

**-Crisis**


End file.
